Easter

The children made necklaces using chicken, egg and rabbit shapes. They also boiled eggs and decorated them using coloured shrinky patterns and made easter baskets and little chocolates to take home for their families. We read about Peter Rabbit and did lots of colouring in of Easter shapes.

Harmony Day

Part of our Multicultral Program included celebrating Harmony Day. This is a day that celebrates Australia's success as a diverse society united by a common set of values. Australia is a nation built on immigration and we have a history of welcoming people from around the world. Today Australians speak over 300 languages, including indigenous languages, identify with more than 200 ancestries and practise a range of religions.

To celebrate this wondeful day we had our Playgroup day at Mova's. The colour for Harmony day is orange and Mova made us some Patty Cakes that the children could ice individually with orange icing, yummy!!!

This day was also a celebration for Pyper's Birthday and the children shared an Ice cream cake with her. Happy Birthday Pyper!

Harmony Day

Inside Play

The children love to play lots of things inside. I always have some sort of Music playing and they like to dance and sing along. Our Favourite is "123 Crayola" and we also like listening to stories played by CD. Our new one is "Peter Rabbit"
There is lots to play with as well. In the toy room and on the back deck it is fun to play with the blocks, little trikes, cars and car mat, dress-ups, dolls, puzzles, books, farm animals and yards. They like to make lots of cups of tea and pretend cook in their oven. They also make cubbies, draw on the blackboard, paint, play with playdough, colour-in, play games - Mr Patato Head, Snap, etc., do lots of craft including collage and box construction and sometimes we have some time for cooking!

Outside Play

The children love to play outside. They have two sets of swings, the cubby house, sandpit, the huge trampoline and the little shed full of interesting things like buckets and brushes, hoola hoops, tennis rackets, balls, bikes, little gardening tools, wheel barrows etc. They also love to help check on the two big bird cages everyday and also to feed and often pat the guinea pigs. They take turns to check the mail, as this usually arrives during our outside time and to run around the big shed, especially when Grandma Pat and Taffey come to visit. The favouite things to do are being pushed on the swings,(although we can all swing ourselves) and to make cups of tea out of the sand for when we have visitors.

What else have we been doing at Craft Time?

As well as colouring in , painting and play dough we have been learning about the colour green and have been catching some frogs. We leave one in the bug catcher for a day and watch it and give it some water and we do a drawing and a painting of it. We talk about what they eat (flies yuck) and what they do (poo lots) and how they were once tadpoles before they developed legs to become frogs. Then we let them go (or sometimes secretly drop them off at Cooky's Welding Works) so that they can catch more insects as these type of frogs are really good to have in the garden.

The children have also been painting and collecting leaves as we have been talking about the seasons and how it is now Autumn. We are in the middle of preparing a huge Autumn tree with handprint leaves for our Artwork wall. We have been lucky enough to have Phill home inbetween his job change to help us with this. Thanks Phill. Who knew you loved to paint handprints!!!

What else happened in March!

Phill & I went to see Brooks & Dunn in Brisbane. What an excellent concert!
Linda & Ethan attended their Grade 8 High School camp from the 3rd to the 7th March at Mudjimba.
Tessa, Grandma Pat and I attended our weekend away at the Coast with the highlights being the Outback Spectacular, the Q1 Tower, A River cruise and some shopping.
Alex & Christan attended their Grade 4/5 School camp from the 10th to the 13th March in Brisbane.
We had Green milk and painted Green shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.
We had some wonderful fun filled Playgroups.
Birthdays this month included Bree 10, Makayla 3, Gregory 7, Linda 13, and Jake 14.
I attended a Sids & Kids workshop as well as a Food Safety Standards course. I completed my Senior First Aid for the next 3 years with CPR updates every 12 months. I attended a Quality Assurance Meeting with other Carers and co-ordinators at Movas as well as our general monthly meeting.
We even managed to fit in the Easter break!!!!
What a busy month!

Playgroup at Sandy's Place

On Tuesday 11th March we had our playgroup at Sandy's house. Sandy is another Carer with Charleys Place and the children were excited to be visiting her and the children for the morning.

Sandy has some wonderful toys and the children all sat on a blanket and had their morning tea. It was like a big picnic! The children did some painting that Sandy had provided. Her theme was the letter "P" so the paintings were of a pig with the colour being pink.

These opportunities are great for us as Carers to come together and network with regards to ideas and it is also interesting to see how everybody does things differently. Thanks Sandy for a wonderful morning!!

Makayla's Birthday Party

Makayla turned 3 on Thursday 6th March and since it was a Daycare day her Mum and Dad wanted her to have her party with her other Daycare friends so we had a Party Morning Tea"!

Puppies at Daycare

Makayla's new puppie Eddie and Linda's new puppy Lily have spent some time in Daycare. The children love it on those special days.

Multicultural Activities

As part of our Multicultural Program we are looking at China. So far the children have made Chinese Lanterns, coloured in maps of China, made a "Year of the Rat" crown and one of their favourite activities to celebrate Chinese New Year was to make some Rice and Noodles. We still have a few things to do in this program including looking at Panda Bears and reading lots of interesting stories.

Valentines Day

For Valentines Day the children picked some flowers from the garden and used the petals to make a beautiful heart collage. They used contact instead of glue and it was a lot easier and less messier. They also made lollipop hearts for everyone in their family as well as some Garfield shaped Chocolates.